Tips for Managing Wet Hair With Telogen Effluvium (TE)

Website design By BotEap.comMany of the emails I receive from people struggling with telogen effluvium ask questions about the best way to deal with wet hair loss. When we get out of the shower or finish washing and conditioning our hair, that’s when we style it or style it if it’s healthy and not falling out. But, when you have ET, combing wet hair can mean tons of falling out.

Website design By BotEap.comBut if you don’t style it, it can dry out in a very unflattering way. Which means it can be unmanageable, volatile, or lack decent style. I recently heard from someone who said “my hair is quite long and I’ve had telogen effluvium for about four months. After washing my hair very carefully, I’m not sure what to do. Because every time I wet comb or brush, I find that it falls out a lot more. This makes me not want to handle or touch my hair. But if I just let it dry I get unruly strands going everywhere. How do I style my hair when it’s wet? if it falls out a lot more every time I touch it? When I wait for it to dry, it’s too unmanageable.” I will try to address these concerns in the following article.

Website design By BotEap.comI came up with a regimen that worked quite well for me when I had CTE (chronic telogen effluvium) and I will share it with you now. When your hair is falling out, it is very important that you do not pull or manipulate it too much. As you probably already know, just touching your hair will make it more likely to fall out. And, from a psychological point of view, it is important to avoid this as much as possible.

Website design By BotEap.comIn my case, I would gently dry my hair as best I could. I would avoid combing or brushing my hair until it is completely dry (and would only do it when necessary). I would add spray conditioner to make it easier to manage. (Be careful this is a light conditioner so your hair doesn’t look greasy.) I would then run my hands very gently along the shaft of my hair to get it to settle in nicely. Then I would put that same hair in a towel and put it on top of my head to dry. The act of toweling hair up would add volume. And gathering it first would help keep it from getting wild and flying. I would let my hair towel dry as long as possible. On a good day, I might let my hair dry completely before removing it. If that wasn’t possible, I would towel dry my hair and then remove it once it was dry.

Website design By BotEap.comNow, once I got my hair out of the towel, it wouldn’t look too bad and the hairs that had fallen out would be collected in the towel, saving me the hassle of having to remove worn hair out of my clothes. Of course, there would be some loose hair, so I would smooth it out with my hands, fingers, or if necessary a wide tooth comb. This type of comb is very important because it does not pull as much. When my hair fell out a lot, I had to avoid curling irons or rollers because they only made more hair fall out. But this towel method allowed me some volume and style. And if I wanted wavy hair, I would gently twist the hair I picked up (kind of like a ponytail) and gently twist it before putting it on the towel. This would create some loose waves.

Website design By BotEap.comThe important thing is not to pull on wet hair. This is not a good idea when your scalp and hair are healthy and not falling out, but it is a horrible idea when it is or when you have ET. Seeing your hair fall out is bad enough, but accidentally pulling more of it can be almost unbearable. That’s why it’s important to treat the hair very gently, but handle it in a way that it looks good once it dries, so it doesn’t take a lot of work to achieve a nice hairstyle or look.